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Issue 1.1 In the Community
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How to Reach Euphoria: The Euphoria Farms VisionPause for Paws
Saving the Waves One Shirt at a TimeWhat the Hell are we Doing?
Exploring the Cal Poly Community
CommunityIn the
Volume 1.1 3
6 What the Hell are we Doing?
One companies effort to regrow California’s natural landscape
10 Saving the Waves One Shirt at a Time
A Cal Poly student combines his love of the ocean with his business sense
Digital Frankenstein Volume 1.1
CommunityIn the
20 How to Reach Euphoria: The Euphorian Farms Vision
A ripe young group of entrepreneurs starts a CSA harvesting only local fruit 26 Pause for Paws
Volunteering to help make homeless pets lives a little brighter
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Editor-in-Chief Kelly Cooper
Writers Laura PezziniSaving the Waves One Shirt at a TimeKelly CooperHow to Reach Euphoria: The Euphorian Farms VisionAli TorbatiWhat the Hell are we Doing?Kiefer HackneyPause for Paws
Creative DirectorBrendan Lee
Designers Eli McNuttSaving the Waves One Shirt at a TimeAli TorbatiWhat the Hell are we Doing?Caitlin RusnakHow to Reach Euphoria: The Euphorian Farms VisionBrett ItayaPause for PawsBrendan LeeCovers 1 & 4, Contents, Masthead, Letter from the Editors
Contact [email protected]@gmail.comdigitalfrankenstein.org
Photographers Kiefer HackneyPause for PawsNha HaSaving the Waves One Shirt at a TimeKelly CooperHow to Reach Euphoria: The Euphorian Farms Vision
Staff
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Hey all, thanks for coming back for Issue No. 2.This month, we found ourselves rich with ideas about hap-
penings in the Cal Poly and SLO community. We settled on four features which are all about unique organizations working to make a difference, whether that’s through animal adoptions or ocean cleanup. At the same time, we were fresh off the success of our first issue and gaining ground on solidifying our purpose. Thus, this month’s edition—In the Community—was our first venture through the lens of our newly-established mission.
The mission is to unite Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo through highlighting unique student and community projects. The magazine will stay at Cal Poly, and will serve as a way for people to connect, learn and get inspired.
Beyond the content, Digital Frankenstein also serves as a tool for students to explore all aspects of digital publishing, which is a resource Cal Poly currently lacks. Students who get involved have the opportunity to explore writing and design for magazines, as well as the creative and crazy process behind publications.
Our past two issues have been a collective effort. Some students have worked on both issues, while others have con-tributed to one. Either way, without the passion and dedication of our makeshift staff, Digital Frankenstein could not thrive.
This second edition also marks our final contribution as both editors and students. While we are both graduating, we will maintain background roles directing the growth of Digital Frankenstein. Our aim is to pass the magazine into the hands of the next generation of writers and designers who share our passion.
Thanks for reading, and see you later this summer.
Kelly & Brendan
Letter from the Editors
@kellyccooper
@brendanclee
Digital Frankenstein
WHAT THE
HELL ARE WE
DOING?6
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Lionel Johnston, COFounder of One Cool Earth, aims to regrow California’s natural landscape by educating communities exciting people to plant native trees.
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Native vegetation is as impor-tant to any environment as the humans and animals that inhabit it. But humans have a tendency to remove what they find undesir-able and replace it with what they want, regardless of the results. For hundreds of years in California, na-tive trees have been uprooted and replaced by what we deem aestheti-cally appropriate. This unfortunate practice has lead to natural inhab-itants either dying or having to relocate.
One Cool Earth, a local nonprofit cofounded by Lionel Johnston, aims to reverse this un-sustainable trend. Johnston has deep roots in the San Luis Obispo community—he helped build Robert E. Kennedy Library and the architecture building while he was a union ironworker. Now he strives to educate the community about our environment by bringing programs to local elementary, middle and high schools, as well as working with Cal Poly students to plant trees all over campus and San Luis Obispo County.
While working at Paramount’s Hollywood Studios in the late 1980s, Johnston used to wander up into the hills and look over Los Angeles. It was during this time that
EVERY CAR IS A LITTLE VOLCANO
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he took notice of how humans were severely “strip mining the state of its native plants and resources... removing oaks and planting ficus trees that required huge amounts of water.”
To Johnston, people were de-stroying the natural landscape and replacing the once thriving vegeta-tion with concrete and asphalt.
"Humans don’t really know what the hell they're doing," he said.
To bring foreign trees to an ecosystem can have devastating effects. For example, the Western Wood Duck lives on acorns and finds shelter in hollow trees trunks, and their annual migration from Canada to Laguna Hanson, Mexico dictates that they fly a coastal route all the way South. But with the diminished population of Oaks in California, these beautiful ducks have become all but extinct.
To reverse the trend, One Cool Earth is bringing native planting into the community and encour-aging people to explore their sur-roundings. Johnston is a major proponent of “Learn By Doing,” and thinks that rejuvenating California is within our power. He believes that with the right education and support we can all work together to restore balance in nature.
“Every car is a little volcano,” he said. “The CO2 emissions we’ve produced in the last couple hundred years are equivalent to 600,000 years of volcanic eruptions... We need to replant, wherever possible, the native plants that were once here.”
Recently, WOW Team joined One Cool Earth at Laguna Lake to help plant native trees and preserve the environment. In May, a group met at the Cal Poly sports fields to re-hang fallen drip lines. One Cool Earth has an agreement with the ASI Grounds Crew to use the space behind one of their equipment sheds to grow saplings that will eventually be planted elsewhere on campus.
According to Johnston, nobody at One Cool Earth is sure this will solve the crisis, but an honest effort goes a long way, and trying to make a difference is better than letting something this important wash over us.
For more information, visit onecoolearth.org.
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SAVINGTHE WAVESONE SHIRT AT A TIME
The ocean has always been a part of Caine Fair’s life. Growing up in Laguna Beach, California, he developed a passion for surfing that grew into a lifestyle. Since childhood, he has spent much of his time at the beach surfing, skimboarding, or just hanging out with friends. This love for the ocean formed Fair’s conscience early on. >>
BY/ LAURA PEZZINIPHOTOS/ NHA HA
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It’s something that I love doing; it’s a fun environment fundraising money for a special cause.
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“In Laguna Beach there’s a big push towards anti-pollution awareness, so it’s been under our radar since birth,” he said.
He acted on his concerns about pollution by starting CMNTY Clothing, a company that mixes surf culture with a collective effort to preserve the well-being of the ocean.
The seeds of Fair’s endeavor were planted when he started a skimboarding competition to benefit the Surfrider Foundation—an organization which benefits marine well-being—as a sixth grader. The competition was held annually in Laguna up until his junior year of high school and, over the years, raised about $6,000 for the organization. Fair recounts this experience as one of his favorite memories of growing up by the ocean.
“It’s something that I love doing; it’s a fun environment fundraising money for a special cause,” he said.
Fair went on to work in the customization department of Hurley as a junior in high school, and also did some design work for for Quicksilver last summer. Fair and his childhood friend Dylan Roley actually came up with the concept of CMNTY while they worked together at Hurley.
“We started making shirts that said CMNTY at our old job at Hurley for our friends,” Roley said. But it was not until later that Fair started thinking about turning that into an actual company.
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Now a junior, he started envisioning CMNTY as a cloth-ing line in his freshman year at Cal Poly. Fair wanted to start a project that went beyond what he was learning in his classes.
“I thought it would be fun to start my own company, and I’m a better learner when it comes to doing stuff on my own,” he said.
Majoring in Business with a concentration in Entrepreneurship, combined with a minor in Graphic Communication, Fair was equipped with all the tools to start CMNTY Clothing.
“It was a way to use my major and minor in something I liked doing rather than projects in class,” he said.
He got Roley on board, recruited his older brother Ryan, and contacted Laguna Surf and Sport (a surf shop in Laguna Beach) which put him in contact with clothing manufacturers that spe-cialize in surf branding. From there, the company was born.
“They kind of took me under their wing and ever since I’ve been doing it on my own,” Fair said.
15 percent of the profits from sales go directly toward marine welfare. But making money was never the goal for the founders of CMNTY.
“We’ve been seeing a drastic impact on marine life through trash and plastics,” he said. “So we thought we’d take our interests in clothing design and put a twist on it to act on everything we’ve been seeing.”
The company itself is a collective effort—there is no hierarchy between the three founders, who all have their own roles while remaining one cohesive creative entity. As Fair puts it, “You can’t have one person being creative.” Roley agreed, calling the leadership of the company a “three-headed beast.” Within this, however, the three each play to their strengths. Fair manages much of the business aspect of the
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This love for the ocean
formed Fair’s conscience
early on.
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company, while Roley handles marketing and Ryan takes on graphic design.
One of the most unique aspects of CMNTY Clothing is the logo. According to Fair, the letters of the word “CMNTY” are connected to reiterate its message of coming together. The octopus logo has a twofold purpose: to remind people of the creatures that are in danger and to convey the idea of reach-ing out to join in the effort to save them.
“I saw it as the arms of the octopus gathering every-one together from across the world for the common cause of helping to save the ocean,” Fair said. “It’s just a common theme across the board that we want everyone to come to-gether, fight for the same cause, and hopefully make some-thing big out of it.”
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The t-shirts are made with 25 percent recycled plastic.
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Although the CMNTY team is dedicated to funding ocean welfare, a decision has not yet been reached as to exactly which organization will receive the 15 percent.
“It comes down to what exactly we want to do with our money,” Fair said.
Fair also said a significant amount of research has gone into finding a company which the team can be sure will use the money effectively. The current contenders are the Surfrider Foundation and One World One Ocean, a nonprofit based out of Laguna Beach. Fair hopes to make a decision and send off the first check by the beginning of summer.
“It’s going to be a pretty hefty check,” he said. “We’ve been pretty successful in donations so we’re stoked; we couldn’t be more happy.”
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Fifteen percent of the profits
from sales go directly
towards marine
welfare.
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The clothing itself helps the cause as well—the t-shirts are made with 25 percent recycled plastic.
“What we’re trying to do is take out the plastic from the ocean, produce them into a garment, and then sell them to give back again, so it’s kind of a full-circle effect,” Fair said.
While the CMNTY team has succeeded in selling sustain-able threads, they have also made significant strides in pro-motion through social media and sponsoring athletes. The company sponsors two riders, Tim Fulton and Johnny Salta. Both professional skimboarders, they grew up with Fair and Roley and now travel the globe on United Skim Tours, taking the company name with them.
“It’s a cool vibe to see someone you know being innova-tive in their sport, and that goes hand in hand with an inno-vative clothing line,” Fair said.
Sponsoring Fulton and Salta has been a marketing strat-egy as well—Fair estimates that after each competition, the CMNTY Clothing Facebook page receives up to 200 more “likes” simply from seeing the logo.
Currently, the team is working on releasing their summer line, which should be available in June. They have also en-tered LA Launch, an innovative surf trade show, in an effort >>
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There’s nothing better than sitting on the beach with a couple buddies and trading off waves in the water.
to expand the company’s reach. According to Roley, they also plan on sponsoring more riders in the future.
“As our company grows, our team will grow,” he said.Though a few surf shops have shown interest in picking
up the line, Fair maintains that they aren’t planning on going corporate.
“We’re trying to stay local and spread the word of the company through local coastal communities because that’s what we think is the heart of the generation,” he said.
The CMNTY Clothing project is quite an endeavor. Fair’s lifetime of giving back to the ocean has provided an opportu-nity that, combined with a passion for the sea, has the po-tential to make a difference. What is now a budding project, however, started with a simple love for the ocean.
“There’s nothing better than sitting on the beach with a couple buddies and trading off waves in the water,” Fair said.
And if the CMNTY Clothing team keeps up their momen-tum, there will be ample opportunity for days like that.
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WE TOP YOUR TACO. 91.3 FM KCPR CAL POLY’S INDEPENDENT COLLEGE RADIO STATION.
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the euphorian farms vision
howtoreach
Euphor iastory & photos by: kelly cooper
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The word “euphoria” gets passed around frequently at the Euphoria Farms headquarters. Not always in relation to the farm, but in describing a state that each of the cofounders reach after doing something they all love—eating.
On the night of the interview, the Euphorians—Arman Orakcilar, Georgia Suter, Rory Aronson and Andy Olson—were shuffling around in the kitchen trying to bake a pie, procure homemade mayonnaise and fry beet burger patties. Seemed like a typical night of euphoria. >>
the euphorian farms vision
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Aronson likes to bring the use of the word back to the definition.
“I read the definition, and it’s experiencing an intense excitement and happiness. And there’s something really mag-ical that happens when we open our oven door and we expe-rience an intense amount of excitement in a short amount of time,” he said.
However, the word has resonated with the Euphorians in more ways than one, now being the title of their fruit cooperative.
The idea is rooted in the city’s prolific amount of fruit trees. Dozens of lemon, orange, fig, peach, and avocado trees line the streets of the city. Yet some goes unused, rots on the ground or is forgotten.
“We’re so lucky to live on the Central Coast where so much is grown here. It’s a shame to know that people aren’t
eating what their community produces, and it’s a shame to see fruit rotting on the ground that could be utilized,” Aronson said.
That’s where the Euphorians step in—they’ve formulated an idea to use the fruit while igniting the community—a cooperative where members can trade their excess fruit for a share of the communities’ collective variety.
“It just makes sense. We have this resource—everyone’s got fruit and can’t possibly eat it themselves,” Orakcilar said.
While it sounds similar to a CSA program in the sense that members will receive a weekly box of fruit, it’s actually a fruit trading collective. Olson noted that no fruit is being sold anywhere—it’s all trading.
“It functions like a CSA in the sense that you get a box every week, but it’s got deeper community roots than that,” Olson said.
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it just makes sense. we have this resource-everyone's got fruit and can't possibly eat it themselves
Suter added that when a community member with a fruit tree signs up for the program, they’ll be reimbursed in more ways that a weekly fruit box.
“We’d harvest their fruit by pound and reimburse them with the market value of that fruit,” she said.
And the program isn’t limited to just community mem-bers with fruit trees—anyone within the city limits can pay the membership fee of $25 a week for 8 lb of fruit, an amount that the group says will feed one to two people throughout the week. They also have a $35 option for three to four people.
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As far as variety, Olson said it depends on the people who sign up. The group plans to partner with Huasna Valley Farm to make sure that each member gets the variety they’re promised.
Although the Euphorians are 110% on board, marketing and outreach has proved challenging. Olson said the group has tried to reach as many people as possible through farm-ers’ markets and flyers, but community boards in cafes and yoga studios are already jam-packed.
“The best thing we can do is find a way to talk to people about it, and the right kind of people, which isn’t so easy because people don’t like being advertised to,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure the right people know we exist.”
Yet the lack of sign-ups at this point doesn’t seem to bug the group, which by this point has certainly reached euphoria in their cooking endeavors. Suter said that the community motive is a core driver in the project.
“I think that anything that’s strengthening the commu-nity is needed— anything that’s looking inward rather than outward,” she said.
Olson added that the program has potential to unite the community in simple ways.
“I’m really stoked for when there’s two members that don’t know each other and meet each other and realize they’ve been eating each others fruit—that connection is neat,” he said. “Everyone can be a farmer with this; it’s a new paradigm for farming.”
To contact visit euphoriafarms.com.
i think that anything that strengthening the community is needed- anything that's looking inward rather than outward
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The Euphoria Farms Fruit Collective is a fruit consumer cooperative that facilitates fruit trading among it’s members, as well as sourcing ethically grown produce from local farms. Every week members receive a box filled with a variety of in-season, locally sourced fruit and preserves, delivered right to their door. Members who have a fruit tree can share its fruit with
the collective and receive a discount on their membership fee!
Join us! Visit www.EuphoriaFarms.com to learn how.www.EuphoriaFarms.com
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animal shelters in slo countyStory & Photos by Kiefer Hackney
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Who doesn’t want a dog with the face and body of a puppy—forever?
After spending two years in what he thought he could call his home, Scootera handsome Beagle-Pug mix—was surrendered to Woods Humane Society in San Luis Obispo. At just two years old, his energy and affection touched everyone who threw him a bone.
After Scooter had been at the shelter for about two weeks, Woods participated in SLO’s annual Walk for Autism. Woods brought Scooter along with nine other dogs to be “rented” out for the walk. Scooter was a big hit; little girls were begging their parents to adopt him and a few couples were interested in taking him home.
Over the course of the day, three people placed 24-hour holds on Scooter, all ecstatic to call him their own. Woods would be closed the following day, but on Monday, they ex-pected a crowd of people to show up and fight over Scooter.
But no one came on Monday or Tuesday. Yet after pa-tiently waiting for almost three weeks, Scooter found a family. Although it was sad to see him go, everyone at the shelter was happy to send him off on a new adventure.
Hundreds of animals come through Woods every year, but their adoption rates remain fairly impressive. On average, cats spend about 14-28 days at the shelter; dogs spend 7-10 days. There are always exceptions and some—like Scooter—may end up spending more time. >>
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Woods Humane Society is a non-profit animal shelter that is funded entirely by private donations and can hold up to 200 cats and dogs at any given time. They are a no-kill facil-ity, meaning that they do not euthanize any of their animals, no matter how long it stays. Because they do not receive any funding from the government, Woods relies heavily on their volunteers to keep the organization running.
Located next door to Woods Humane Society is SLO County Animal Services. Unlike Woods, however, this shelter takes all types of animals. Being in the same neighborhood allows Woods and Animal Services work closely together to get their animals adopted. This partnership has been success-ful in reducing the euthanasia rate. In 2005, Woods forged an agreement with the county which stated that they would accept no less than 350 adoptable animals from Animal Services each year. Although this deal is inclusive only to cats and dogs, this effort has curbed the overall euthanasia rate. Some animals with untreatable medical or behavioral issues are humanely euthanized on site. Although SLO County Animal Services receives funding from the federal govern-ment, they also rely on volunteers.
Cal Poly’s Student Community Services (SCS) group, Poly Paws, works with both of these shelters and several other animal organizations in the area. They provide the shelters with volunteers and raise awareness about adoption and various events.
Volunteering at a local animal shelter is a great way to meet new people, hang out with awesome animals, and give back to the community. With the help of dedicated volun-teers, dogs like Scooter can run quickly out of a shelter and into the arms of a loving family.
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For further information on volunteering in SLO:>Woods Humane Society>SLO County Animal Services>Poly Paws
